I want to be a pirate!
I downloaded and played The Secret of Monkey Island : Special Edition on Xbox Live Arcade. It took less than few minutes to download the 500+ MB demo and no more than 10 seconds after I launched it to be excited. The classic intro screen was on display with the classic - much beloved - monkey island music theme(youtube video) and then it faded out to the new and improved screen, spotlighting the most exciting enhancement to the remake.
The folks at Lucasarts pulled it off; it is the same wonderful game we 'all' know and love, outfitted with gorgeous hand drawn graphics, dialogue voice-overs and a user interface that actually works on the consoles.
I wish I could purchase the full game, alas, the whole Microsoft Points deal is messy due to the fact that Xbox Live is not 'officially' supported in Greece and the implications related to credit cards processing. Links: Review on Gamespy, Guybrush Threepwood
I turned on my dekstop PC tonight in order to look for Trine on Steam. I came across a review on Giantbomb and was really impressed by the premise and the visuals of the game. Some friends have played it and had nothing but words of praise for it. Hopefully, I will play for a while this weekend. Speaking of my PC, in retrospect, it was one of the least meaninful purchases I ever made. My intentions were to install Linux so that I could work on the Linux Kernel and prepare for Larrabee's arrival so that I would eventually get to develop for it ( I am very excited about Larrabee if previous posts haven't made it clear by now ). Turns out, I only use my beloved MBP anyway for I have so little time to spare lately. Oh, well.
Being Amiga users back in the day was a lot like choosing a platform with a soul over PCs. I feel the same away about using Apple products (especially OS X). It feels great, it feels right, it feels much like it felt when I was using our Amiga. Whenever I have to use Windows ( thankfully, not often nowadays ) it feels wrong in so many ways. Come to think of it, the only thing I like about Windows is the Win32 API
Just like every summer, I am going through a huge productivity slump. I can't wait for Autumn. This time around I intent to try to deal with it though.
Thursday, 16 July 2009 1:37 am
Morning Links
- Efficient editing with vIM. Also, worthy of a ready The Birth of vi on slashdot
- Advanced DnD: Heroes of the Lance and Pool of Radiance are two RPGs that were reviewed in one of the first PIXEL magazines I read - at least those are two of the games that stuck with me.
- Speaking of rather obscure games that got stuck with me, Blade Warrior for the Amiga along with Maupity Island, Murder from U.S Gold and Final Battle: The Legend of the Sword continues would fit in this category nicely. Those were the days..
Saturday, 6 January 2007 3:35 pm
On top of the desk
I am contemplating buying a desktop PC for satisfying two
needs luxuries. Last time I used a desktop PC
(co-owned one with my
brother) was in early 90's, our beloved Amiga. Once the Amiga was
rendered obsolete I was workstation-less at home, until I got my
first laptop ( HP ). Ever since then, I 've been using laptops both
at home and at work.
However, my i386 based laptop ( which I use for gaming and Visual Studio ) no longer can handle some new games I am really looking forward to playing. In addition to that, I need a system which will allow me to attach storage devices to it, stuffing that storage with files and share them to our various computers at home over our LAN. Being a desktop computer, I will be able to upgrade its video graphics card when I see fit thus being able to catch up with whatever technology will be required to play whatever game with relative ease.
I already have an Audigy NX 2 (usb based) sound card by Creative, a 7.1 speakers setup, my trusty 24" Dell screen. I figure all I need is a compact box, 1G+ RAM, a video card, a motherboard and a hard disk to store our media files.
I could use my MacBook Pro for gaming ( thanks to the BootCamp ) but I just don't have enough free hard disk space to waste on a Windows parition(1) and even if I did have I would have waited for Leopard to arrive with Bootcamp stable (as opposed to current beta, yet fully functional) release(2).
Here is a 'funny' quotation I spotted on MobyGames .
I have a theory that all the money in the world wouldn't make me happy. I'm trying to get billions of dollars so I can test this theory. --Brian Hirt
Monday, 16 October 2006 9:06 pm
